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ComedianGabriel Iglesiasnever thought of himself as an actor.
One of them was the shows co-creator Kevin Hench, the creator ofMr.
Iglesias,which debuts on Netflix today.
But Kevin felt I was a natural at it.
Id walk out on set and people were already cheering, and I was just a recurring character.
People there were like,Somethings going on here.
It took a lot of convincing Your parents know whats good for you key in of thing.
You fight it, and then it turns out they were right.
1 rule for casting, and why hed prefer never to be called a Latino comic again.
I didnt want to be a mechanic.
I thought that we could do something better.
It was the right fit.
Tell me more about that.
That was one of the two things I had in my mind.
The teacher told me that I had the gift of getting attention.
I told her, But my lesson plans were really bad.
And she goes, They were bad, but you were able to get the kids attention.
Other students werent able to do that.
Did you seriously consider that?It happened so fast.
They would pay for everything.
It was tempting, and my mom was very upset when I didnt take it.
All he saw was that comedy was just someone running his mouth.
When did you start thinking about being a comedian?Oh, when I was 10 years old.
I was always watching their comedy specials.
I knew that I loved it and I wanted to do that.
I just didnt know how I was gonna do it.
She was like right in the middle.
She was like, Well, whatever makes you happy.So at least it wasnt like, Dont be stupid.
Shes no longer with us, but she lived long enough to see me become a successful stand-up comic.
What was your role as executive producer on the show?
Did you remain involved in the development of it?
Were you in the writers room?The development part, yes.
I paid one visit in the beginning to the writers room.
I wouldnt change story lines, but I would add punch lines or change a word here or there.
For the most part, I let the writers write.
Were you involved in the casting?That definitely I was.
That was my cup of tea all day.
Forget that if theyre good at what they do.
I was more so like, Can I get along with people?
Cause if I cant get along with people, its not gonna go over well.
I have to be in a really positive, just chill environment.
Im not a fan of drama, and I work way too hard to be dealing with drama.
In the beginning, you werent sure if acting was your thing.
What did you find to be the most challenging part of doing the show?Waking up.
Im a night creature.
I thrive when the sun goes down thats when I go up.
Plus, we had food trucks.
I firmly believe that if you feed people, theyre more likely to be happy.
It was uncharted waters, and it was just like, Lets see how it goes!
And that first episode was so much fun, and we just kept it going.
But, what about you as the lead?
I understand what you mean.For example, people call Jerry Seinfeld Jerry Seinfeld no matter where he goes.
So I always felt by branding it a certain way, I was holding myself back.
Im not avoiding who I am.
I acknowledge who I am.
Believe me, youll hear it in the show.
I know exactly who I am, but I feel that labeling it sometimes hurts you.
Its the double-edged sword all minorities face.
Still, I cant help but feel that something positive is happening.
We are being represented more than ever.
We do have a long way to go, but its more than Ive seen in my lifetime.Uh-huh.
But we wanted to ensure that it stayed within a certain brand so more people can enjoy it.
This is why its basically PG-rated.
We kept the language cool.
I dont make any hard political statements in the show because I dont do that in my comedy routine.
So I needed to verify that I kept it that way.
We can hint, we can do some suggesting.
I come really close but I dont cross it.
Any time you make a run at convey a message, sometimes people dont want to hear that message.
But, as in life, you cant make everyone happy.
